Optical transceivers are used to transmit and receive optical signals for various applications including, without limitation, internet data center, cable TV broadband, and fiber to the home (FTTH) applications. Optical transceivers provide higher speeds and bandwidth over longer distances, for example, as compared to transmission over copper cables. The desire to provide higher speeds in smaller optical transceiver modules for a lower cost has presented challenges, for example, with respect to maintaining optical efficiency (power), thermal management, insertion loss, and manufacturing yield.
Optical transceivers can include one or more transmitter optical subassemblies (TOSAs) and receiver optical subassemblies (ROSAs) for the purpose of transmitting and receiving optical signals. As optical transceiver housings scale down in size, the complexity of designing and manufacturing TOSAs and ROSAs to fit within those constrained housings, without sacrificing channel allocation and transceiver performance, continues to increase and raises numerous non-trivial issues.